After releasing her memoir, Becoming Free Indeed, Jinger Duggar Vuolo opened up about the life she hopes to create for her two daughters, Felicity and Evangeline.
While acknowledging her “cult-like” upbringing left her riddled with anxiety and terrified, Vuolo shared her hope that her children would have a “very different life” than hers. And she also offered her opinion on why her parents ended up on the “damaging” path they also put their kids on.
Jinger Duggar Vuolo strived for perfection in her childhood
In an interview on the Tamron Hall Show, Vuolo discussed what went on behind the scenes of 19 Kids and Counting. Hall said she’d wondered if the family really followed such strict rules all the time, and Vuolo assured her they did.
She explained that her parents had started following the teachings of Bill Gothard before she was born, and she spent her childhood striving for perfection because of it. “You had to do … all of these outward things to be pleasing to God,” she explained. “No music with drums, modesty standards of wearing dresses only at all times, courtship instead of dating.”
Vuolo added, “It was very restrictive,” giving the example of being on television for all of her childhood but not having cable television in their home. “It was just a very interesting dimension of my life,” she shared.
Jinger Duggar Vuolo hopes to inspire her daughters with her memoir
Vuolo talked to Hall about writing her memoir to share her journey away from those beliefs and how it relates to her daughters. As she explained, it took strength to tell her story in Becoming Free Indeed, something they will one day read. So, she hopes they will be “inspired” when they know all she’s overcome.
She said it also helps to know “they probably will have a very different life” than she did because she and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, are raising them according to their beliefs.
For instance, she told Us Weekly, “We talked about it for a while even before we had kids and whether or not we wanted them in the public eye. And we decided just to keep them out of the public eye and let them choose what they want to do.”
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Vuolo did give a little insight into what her children are like. She shared, “Evie is still at this stage where she likes to scream because she can only say so many words. The past week she’s been trying to put together sentences and so it’s really cute. But it’s also challenging because she screams a lot. Like that’s the stage we’re in until she can talk.”
As for the Vuolo’s oldest, “Felicity is just so much fun [and] super smart,” Vuolo said, adding, “[She’s] super outgoing and an artist. She’ll paint for an hour straight.”
Jinger Duggar Vuolo blames Bill Gothard because families ‘were sucked into’ his beliefs
Vuolo spoke to Hall about Gothard and his teachings, and Hall suggested the Duggar kids were “collateral damage” to their parents’ choice in beliefs.
According to Vuolo, they were charmed by Gothard’s promises. “I think a lot of families were sucked into this in the early stages because Bill Gothard promised a guarantee for success for your family,” she explained. “If you follow his seven principles, then your life will be a success …”
She noted her family also believed life would be “one disaster after another” for those who chose not to follow those principles. That created an environment where she “grew up thinking that God was waiting to get [her] at any turn if [she] stepped outside of any small box.”
Recalling an instance when she was in a car with someone who turned on music with drums, she said her beliefs shook her in fear that she would die. “I thought we’re for sure going to get in a car accident and die because [Gothard] taught that,” she told Hall.
After marrying Vuolo, he helped her see that she could have a devout relationship with her religion without that constant fear of punishment. And Becoming Free Indeed explores her journey to achieving that.
